Texas attorneys want Sandra Bland wrongful death suit tossed
HOUSTON — Attorneys for the state of Texas have asked a judge to dismiss a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by the mother of a woman who was found dead in her jail cell days after her violent arrest during a traffic stop.
Sandra Bland, 28, died in her Waller County jail cell on July 13, three days after her confrontation with a state trooper, Brian Encinia, who pulled her over for a minor traffic infraction. Dashcam video shows their interaction quickly turned into a confrontation when the trooper asked Bland to extinguish her cigarette. Bland was arrested for assault and remained jailed when she couldn't come up with about $500 for bail.
Bland's mother, Geneva Reed-Veal, sued the state police agency, Encinia, Waller County and two jail employees of the county about 50 miles northwest of Houston. She contends that Encinia falsified the assault allegation to take Bland into custody and that jail personnel failed to keep her daughter safe. An autopsy determined Bland hanged herself from a partition in the cell with a garbage bag.
In a court filing Tuesday, the Texas Attorney General's office asked U.S. District Judge David Hittner to dismiss the complaint, arguing that state agencies are constitutionally immune from such lawsuits filed in federal court.
Read more: http://www.mystatesman.com/ap/ap/us/texas-attorneys-want-sandra-bland-wrongful-death-s/nnbcK/
Cross-posted in LBN.
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